Thomas WHITEHOUSE 1829-1909, Coalminer

Thomas WHITEHOUSE was the 4th of 7 sons by Joseph WHITEHOUSE & possible wife  Mary (Collins? Groves?-unverified). Thomas and second wife, Sarah, are my paternal 2nd great-grandparents  through my grandmother Harriet Bunn.  

Thomas was born about 10 July 1829 in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, England, UK. The family moved to the Dudley area in the early 1840s, which was several miles away, likely for work in the coalmines. This region is a southern part of the major coalfields running through the middle of England. See image with sketch of coalmining in Dudley here with smokestacks spewing forth...

Thomas married an Elizabeth or a Sarah _____, likely in 1852 in Dudley - this has yet to be confirmed. So many Thomas Whitehouse men, so many Elizabeth and Sarah/Sara women, and Whitehouse surnames. More digging still to do.  A great example yet again that there could be a surprising number of same-named men with the same surname in the same place, marrying the same-named wife's first name, around the same time. Sigh. Sometimes research is a frustrating slog! Thomas's first wife died within a year, no children noted. 

As a widower, Thomas then married on 16 July 1854 to Sarah PRICE, whose first husband Thomas Shutt had died a year earlier in 1853 in a coal mining accident. Their daughter, Nancy Shutt, was born in June 1853, in Dudley, Worcestershire, England. So, both Thomas and Sarah were widowed at young ages. Thomas' step-daughter Nancy is seen as a Whitehouse child on all censuses.

On the marriage record, it states that Thomas was a "Furnaceman"; his father (deceased) was a Nailer, and Sarah's father was a Miner. See document below.

Thomas and Sarah had the following 5 children in the Dudley/Netherton region: 
    1.  Sarah Elizabeth [ancestor], b. 7 Nov 1858, d. 30 Sep 1928 in Barrow-in-
             Furness, Cumbria; m. 18 Aug 1879 to George BUNN b. 26 Apr 1857
             [search Bunn posts on this site]; 9 children 
    2.  Benjamin, b. Mar 1867, d. after 1901; m. Margaret Milray abt Sep 1890 in
             Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria; no children 
    3.  Henry, b. est 1869; m. Martha ___ est 1888; one daughter; not verified 
    4.  William (Billy), b. 1871; m. Florence (Flo) 3rdQ 1889; 4 sons known
    5.  Enoch, b. 1875; no further information on him to date - too many Enoch
            Whitehouse men in the region to clarify the 'right one.'

One should take note of the blank years between the 1st child and 2nd. Normally with few birth control measures, children would come every 1-3 years apart. So there appear to be at least 2 children lost. Perhaps miscarriages, perhaps illness, perhaps a record misfiled - no details found. as yet. 

On the 1891 Census, Thomas & Sarah are living still in Barrow, with Benjamin and his wife Margaret  and the two younger boys, William & Enoch, working in the Iron Works and  Steel Works. In the 4th Quarter of 1895, Sarah died, aged 60 years,; no information anywhere about how she died so young. 

The 1901 Census in Barrow shows Thomas, listed as aged 74, is living with Benjamin & wife, with their 3 yr old son William. Benjamin continues to be working at the Iron Works, and Thomas is also still working, this time as a "Shipyard General Labourer." A hard-working man all his life. Also, clearly the Iron Works and Shipyard were still going strong, providing good work/wages for the men. 

Finally, we find that Thomas died in the 3rd Quarter of 1909, aged 80, when compared with his baptism record of 10 July 1829. Ages found on censuses are always taken with a grain of salt, as one doesn't know who gave the information. On the 1901 census, for example, his daughter-in-law may have given the information as both men would have been working. 

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If any of these people are also your ancestors, I am happy to share what I have about their families and ancestors as well. You can best contact me at calewisATtelusDOTnet- as Blogger is not allowing me to reply to any comments on my posts.  

SURNAME SATURDAY: Joseph WHITEHOUSE 1793-1844

Joseph WHITEHOUSE, my 3rd great-grandfather, was born in the Rowley Regis area, Staffordshire, England.  He was apparently born about 1793, according to various Census records, but no parish register has yet been found for his birth. Joseph's parents are unknown at this time.

A marriage has been tentatively used for him, but has not yet been accepted as proven.  For the purposes of future research, his first child Samuel was christened in St. Thomas church in Dudley, Staffordshire; his mother was listed as Mary.  He apparently married 17 March 1822 to Mary GROVES, in Dudley, where the family apparently settled.  Dudley was a large area, and inhabitants often stated Dudley on forms when they actually lived in Rowley Regis and other small hamlets in the surrounding area.

Joseph worked first as a Nailer (nail-maker) and later as a Miner.  This occupation information shows up on baptism records of his first sons, then on the marriage registration of my direct ancestor Thomas WHITEHOUSE, the 4th son of Joseph and Mary, seen above. You will notice his son's marriage register records Joseph as "Dead" at the time, 1856.

The Black Midlands had many mines, iron foundaries, and steel mills in the region, as it was very rich in coal and iron.  The men and older boys experienced amazingly hard unhealthy work here in the mines and in the nail-making industry (the latter often done as a home based job, and others in the family would also help, in order to supplement the family income).

He and his wife, Mary, had 7 boys for whom I have found christening records (all at St. Thomas Church):  ** indicates my direct ancestor
  - Samuel  b. 23 Oct 1822    m. Johana, at least 2 boys
  - Benjamin  b. 11 Aug 1824   no marr. found to date
  - Henry  b. 5 Jul 1827     m. Jane Price, 3 boys, 1 girl
  - **Thomas  b. 10 Jul 1829   m. twice; Sarah PRICE Shutt (wid), 5 boys, 1 girl
  - Eli   b. 18 Mar 1832    m. Mary Ann Homer,  4 boys, 4 girls
  - John  b. 18 Jun 1834   no marr. found to date
  - Enoch  b. 9 Jul 1836  m. Esther Carter,  4 boys, 1 girl

I have not yet been able to find Joseph WHITEHOUSE on the 1841 UK Census for either Staffordshire or Worcestershire.  So far I've checked with all 7 of the children, and there are several possibilities and more ways of searching of course.  Perhaps I'll find him mistranscribed after I go through more Censuses page by page.

Joseph died 16 Mar 1844 in Dudley, Staffordshire, and was buried 21 Mar 1844 through St. Thomas Church (burial record with death date).  Note that St. Thomas Church is in the parish of Worcestershire due to historical decisions.  His wife Mary is shown with various groupings of the younger boys in the following Censuses, living later with her married sons, Eli and then Enoch, after they were married.

My goal for this year is to continue searching in the WHITEHOUSE line.  My research log has many possible records still to check online, as well as possible correspondence to write for additional details.   Maybe I'll find a snippet or two here and there to fill out our history.  25 grandchildren - that I know of - lived to continue Joseph's heritage in Canada, Washington State, and England.

And if you have any information on any of these people, please do not hesitate to contact me by either leaving a comment below, or emailing me at calewis at telus dot net.  Thanks for dropping by.

CLUES GALORE! Greatgrandmother's 1858 Birth Record

I love receiving snail-mail.  The clunk of the letterbox outside the front door as the mailman drops in something unknown and flops the metal flap back over it.  The feel of envelopes, the stamps, the possibilities.

A dozen years ago or so, I received a large brown envelope from Dudley, County of Worcester, England, with FIVE certificates:  3 labelled "Certified Copy of an Entry of Birth", 2 labelled "Certified Copy of an Entry of Marriage." What wonderful mail indeed!  However, I was retiring at the time, going into hospital for surgery, and didn't really look at them beyond confirming the contents of that big brown envelope. Today as I wondered what next to work on in my family tree, I finally scanned each of those five documents.  And in scanning, I looked in detail at the records. They now are all scanned, labelled, and filed appropriately. My desk is almost totally clear of genealogy paperwork right now! Amazing.

Here is a copy of my paternal line Greatgrandmother's birth record, with  interesting information about her parents and her life.  (I made it X-large so that you could read more details.)  

When I teach Introduction to Genealogy classes for beginners, I always tease people by saying "There are at least 19 clues or questions to ask, on every document you find!"... because I've found that beginners only see two or three, and think they're done looking:   "Yes, there's the parents and birthdate. Done." Of course, I know I still have much research to do with these certificates in hand.

This document is very easy to read, with careful calligraphic writing. We have her address (born at home) as  Northfield Road, Netherton, Dudley, in the County of Worcester.  I had to look up more about the relationship of Netherton and Dudley to understand why there are two towns listed as if they were separate ones, in Worcestershire.  More to learn.  The number in the first column "448"  is the number of the registration, not the house number, by the way.

There is her father's name Thomas Whitehouse. I do wish he had a more interesting name, like Linus or Beauregard, or something quite out of the ordinary.  But my ancestor men were good solid folk with plain names: Thomas, George, William, John, James, Henry.

But then there is her mother's name, written as:  Sarah Whitehouse late Shutt, formerly Price.   Here we see that Sarah's maiden name is PRICE.  And she was previously married, to a gentleman, surname of Shutt.  I have a few clues to indicate his name was Thomas Shutt, and they were married only 1-2 years at most.  However, I haven't been able to confirm this yet - I have a list of more records to order: another marriage certificate, his death record, plus more research still to do.

We have the father's occupation:  "Laborer at an Ironwork".  There is a reason this area was once termed the Black Midlands, due to the smoke/soot in the air which landed on the ground, trees, houses, people and - I am sure - on the laundry put outside to dry.  I'm trying to think how anyone kept clean when they worked such difficult dirty jobs as iron works jobs, or coal mining, and such. I thought I would be able to see which ironworks Thomas might have worked at. I assumed I'd find something quite specific about an Ironworks foundry near Netherton, or near Northfield Road. I was able to find the following on Wikipedia [scroll down on the page]:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Iron_Company :  

Netherton[edit]

The 'old ironworks' at Netherton (with two furnaces) were acquired from Attwood in 1825 as part of the Corngreaves transaction. The company remained in possession until c1852 when the works were sold to Noah Hingley & Sons. The company is also known to have worked coal mines here.

Brierley Hill, Dudley Wood and Netherton were all held under lease from the Dudley estate.

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Back to those certificates above:  Were you able to read the Registration date?  and the informant?

Sarah made her mark X  The Mark of Sarah Whitehouse  Mother, Northfield road, Netherton/Dudley,  on the Fifteenth December 1858.  This date is about 5 weeks after the birth of their daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Whitehouse.  And I'm making an assumption that my greatgrandmother went to the office to register the birth herself, as her husband, Thomas, had to work.

Sarah would need to bundle up the baby plus her 5 year old stepdaughter against the December cold and wet, and walk to the office where the birth needed to be registered.   Then back they would have to go home again. I would like to find out how she might have gotten to the Dudley Registration office. Surely someone would have given her a lift... was there a railroad? a cart? I'm abysmally ignorant about transportation options in the 1850s in England villages! I also wonder if it mattered to her that she was not able to write her name on the birth registration form at the office. I know so little about her.

I went back to look again at the 1856 marriage record for Thomas Whitehouse and Sarah Shutt, finding her father's name as John Price, Miner.  There were extensive coal mines in and around this area, so that is likely what he did.  Thomas' father was noted as Joseph Whitehouse (Dead), occupation, Nailer. Netherton was known as THE place for nailmaking, from the 1600s onwards into the early-mid 1800s.  Also on the marriage record, Thomas is listed as a Widower, occupation "Furnace Man".  I have begun to search for his first wife, whom I believe was also named Sarah, 5 years younger than him.

I first found the records of a Thomas marrying a Sarah, and a Sarah marrying a Thomas for both first and second marriages an interesting symmetry.  Perhaps not so unusual, as those were quite common names in this time. Eventually I believe I found the most likely pair: Thomas WHITEHOUSE marrying Elizabeth [no surname listed].

I have a few photos of my greatgrandmother, Sarah Elizabeth WHITEHOUSE... she married a George BUNN, and they soon moved up to Barrow-in-Furness where iron foundries and ship-building opportunities abounded. There are so many Bunn and Whitehouse families in Netherton that if you had a stone for each one, you could build a home with them! Several of the Bunn and Whitehouse individuals in my tree were born in Windmill End and in Darby Hand (Darby End), both tiny neighbourhoods near to Netherton.

Any and all BUNN& WHITEHOUSE relatives - please get in touch and I'm happy to email you the copy of any of the Bunn and Whitehouse certificates I have received to date.  And if you have additional details I'd be thrilled to receive them!! (contact information, scroll below)